Cousin to rescue
by Lord-Argent-fourth-of-his-name
Summary: Bellatrix hates to get up, especially in the middle of the night, and most of all because she has to... Whoever caused this, will pay. Cover image by A-Lise
1. Night prowling

Sirius and James were not happy, not at all...

"James, I told you that sneaking around Slytherin part of dungeons, in the night is dangerous. We need to get out" Sirius was pressing his friend clutching his wand, not that he had any faith in its usefulness. He could try to blind his enemy with a flash of light, that was about all he could do.

And he knew that James is not much better. Both boys were totally new to the battle magic of any kind. Yet, here they were sneaking around the Slytherin common room. Sticking Gryffindor quidditch posters on the walls. "If it backfires", Sirius thought "I will murder Jack Weasley, and I will murder James for accepting his dare"...

And as on clue, a strange mutating voice sounded out from the darkness behind them "What do we have here? Pair of brave Gryffindors putting their garbage in our part of the castle? Are you ready for the reward?"

two other voices called "Experiarmus", and the stock of posters proudly declaring "Gryffindor for the Victory" with lion crushing a snake...

Then the first salvo of the stinging hexes come...

Bella woke up in the dead of the night, all seven of her roommates soundly asleep. She woke up because an amulet uncle Orion gave her before the start of the year. it had exactly one use, it warned her if a member of her family was in peril, it did not outright burn so the danger was not one of life and death, but she did not intend to let it go anyway...

Her aunt would probably let Sirius face whatever he was fighting and silently hope for the worst since he got sorted into Gryffindor, but Walburga Black was not ruling the Black Family, not yet, and if Bella was to have any say in it, not ever...

Cussing over what kind of problem did Sirius got in this time, she did her nightgown and secured wand in the holster. She checked her roommates before grabbing her invisible cloak and heading for the entrance to the Slytherin suite. She saw two sixth years dosing of in common room, but they were no trouble either way.

once at the corridor Bella disappeared under her cloak and headed down to where the magic of her locked was nagging her to go. It did not take too long before heard spellwork. Nothing fancy or really dark, mostly stinging hexes, but a heck lot of them. once she walked around next corner she saw the perpetrators.

It seemed that Arthur Flint and his gang of quidditch hooligans took Sirius and his friend, by surprise, disarmed them... And they were using them for target practice! She was not overly fond of Sirius, but the fact that they took a Black for a practice target was infuriating. And besides, deep down, she counted the obnoxious bugger as a family. And no one was ever allowed to terrorize her family if she had a say in it.

Bellatrix heard them earlier that night, in the common room. Planning some of their shenanigans. Unfortunately, Bella has written that of as unimportant. Now her cousin was paying for it.

She counted the enemy, six, three of them were the fourth years, and probably dangerous even to her. One was her classmate and a total pushover. rest were second years.

All accounted, she could do it, with a bit of luck on her side. Taking precise aim at one of the fourth years, some Zabini of a sort, she recalled, she whispered: "Stupefy". The hex hit the jock right in the centre of his back, and he fell down...

Unfortunately, this first unopposed shot was the only one, Bella managed to land before one of the brats sounded alarm... so now it was her, albeit invisible, against five enemies. Three of which were surely more than able to stun her, and the other two, she should not underestimate as well.

She started dancing around, always firing her hexes in a burst of four or five at the time, then moving few steps aside. Her classmate was not total jock, but most of his spells were missing Her at a comfortable distance. Yet one of the remaining fourth years was more precise than Bella would have preferred. At times sending his stunners as close as within two feets of her.

He had to go! Bellatrix started singling him out. it comed at expense of letting the other four having a field day trying to hex air at her last position before she unleashed yet another barrage of magic.

Eventually, she subdued him with Petrificus totalus hex. His fall made dull stone like sound. Bella spared one second for feeling sad that his fall would not cause at least a mild concussion. Well, that could be easily helped afterwards...

For now, she still had four enemies standing. one of the youngsters she offed with a well-aimed stunner. Soon her classmate followed in the same fashion.

The remaining Fourth year turned far more resourceful. and his remaining sidekick was accurate for his age. Bella soon found herself unable to push forward against both of them. She decided to only keep the occupied until her stupid arse of a cousin take the note, and disappear.

Even with that goal, it was getting harder to evade each incoming hex. On several occasions, Bella had to give away her position by casting Protego charm.

Last two buggers standing get back to their senses and pressed on to deal with the intruder. Had they knew who exactly were they dealing with, they would most likely decide against it. But Bella was not about to get visible and have a chat, she knew that there were bastards in her House who would put Slytherin loyalty far ahead of the family loyalty... She had no intention of making enemies of them for no good reason. Her father always told her "Pick your enemies wisely, and you need not fear defeat, rush in like some stupid lion, and you will die..."

But then she thought: "Attacking one of us is a good reason!"

She spared a look to two stupid lions she was fighting for on that day. And she saw something that astounded her. Not knowing who they were helping too, both young lions sprang, well limped, in the action...

Seeing this she lay of cutting curses, and other heaviest spells she has mastered to not hurt her family. Bella send a silent prayer to whatever deity she did not believe in, that her cousin show half the brains as he apparently had guts.

As it was she thought about what they may have in mind. finding some wands on the floor was not quick enough, nor they had any guarantee that the wands of their tormentors would work of them.

They seemingly run through the same chain of thoughts as both of them attacked the remaining bastards with they bare hands, kicking and teeth... Bella flinched as she saw Sirius taking a kick in the crotch from boy three years his elder, but her cousin have not let go of his enemy.

At least for long enough that Bellatrix dispatched the unlucky bastard with a stunner. The last "man" standing on the enemy team got the message that chances are now seriously in his disfavour and did the Slytherin thing... Shame on him that Bella was in no mood to appreciate it and hit him square in the back.

She then collected all the wands and gave a quick thought to the possibility of simply breaking these of Flints little band of hooligans, but no, she had a better thing in mind...

Lovering her hood she addressed both Sirius and James with "What by Merlin"s old knickers were two of you thinking? Lurking around the castle at night? Fine. But what in the hell brought you co close to the Slytherin quarters? Some stupid dare? Well, tell the person who dared you, that I will have a chat with them..."

Bellatrix kicked one of the unconscious enemies on the ground "What were you two thinking, that you can take their like head on?

Next time I may not be quick enough to save your miserable arses before someone send you to the hospital wing..." She knew that now it was not a good time for chastizing Sirius. Prefects teachers, Filch and his cats all loved lurking in the dark. But he needed to understand what he was about to get into "Flint and his merry band of Terrors send Rockwood to the hospital wing, for saying that our team suck" her hand caught Sirius in vice grip "Sent. To. Hospital. Wing. Do you want to go there? No? Start using that brain of yours, and that goes for you as well Potter, I do not care whether you get yourself killed, but my cousin hangs out with you. If he gets hurt because of your stupidity, better be dead by the time I learn about it..." She was satisfied with the results, both boys looked like a ghost sailed right through them...

"Also if I come to think that you two need training I will train you, as hard as I decide" which, come to her mind, might not be that bad an idea... But first things first. Handing the collected wands to them, she told: "sort out yours, and hide the rest around the castle, be inventive..." The mischievous smiles could be detected even on the swallowed faces... She could rest assured that Flint and company will have a tough time getting their wands back.

She addressed the bys again: "Nothing broken, other than Ego, you two? I am by no means a healer, but I can fix you up a little if I have to" they shake heads, Sirius said, "nothing other than stinging hexes, I feel like that time when I step on the wasp nest, you should remember..." Bella had remembered, it was two years ago and Her uncle decided that Sirius will have to bear the pain, she ended up taking mercy on Sirius and smuggling him some dreamless sleep potion. Later he ended up having to take her to the diagonal alley for an afternoon of shopping and having to pay for it.

Now she had to take them in the Gryffindor tower, else they might find some misfortune on the way. she was not about seeing her cousin expelled for taking part in an illegal duel and stealing wands from other wizards. Well, being Black, he would not get expelled, but being detented within the inch of expulsion was not something she wished on him either.

Her love for her family was often tough, sometimes demanding, and at times selfish, but it was there, deep in the core, Bellatrix was a Black, Blacks kept together no matter what, another thing her uncle have told her...

She could give them her invisible cloak, but that would leave her exposed, and she had not particularly fancied the possibility of meeting a prefect or teacher on patrol. Linking her to half a dozen of stunned and petrified students would not be that hard. And Slughorn fat old spider he was would not be able to protect her against consequences. No, she was not letting go of the cloak, that left her with one option.

For once she was glad that both of the present lions were mere first years because she had to smuggle them under her cloak. They were just scrawny and small enough for three of them to fit under one cloak.

"now dear cousin, it is not like I don't enjoy your company, but you are ought to be in your tower, and I will see you there..." he motioned for them to come closer "we need no prying eyes on us do we?" She asked. Both boys made an annoyed face at the implication.

She felt irritated, well she knew that she is easy to irritate, but that was not the point. So she snapped "Whats the matter? Don't wanna get cosy with a Slytherin?" The looks she got back were telling enough.

"well Messers, this snake just save your arses. And is willing to get you safe in your tower, but if you want to face Filch in this state, I am not going to stop you, enjoy your detentions..." Bella disappeared under her cloak and turned away...

She made about twenty paces before Sirius come to his senses and called "Bella, stop!" under hood she smiled, he was a proud one, "this must be hard for him", she thought...

"You will accept my offer then?" Bella said a tiny bit of mockery in her voice "Brave lions you are. Are you sure that you will not rather take your chance with Filch? Siri? Potter?"

Bella as not going to allow them to go back alone. She knew that she was responsible for Sirius, and she would do her level best. But... She was going to milk it for what it was worth, tonight she wanted him to put down that stupid house prejudice, as far as the actual family was concerned. Getting some concessions of sorts from Potter was just an icing on the cake.

She turned, so she could see Sirius. He looked agitated. On one hand, he had a head full of the anti-Slytherin bias, on the other hand... "Bella, come back, please..."

The "please" was said with a bit of question to it, but Bellatrix was willing to take it as it was, the first step in her plan. So she walked back.

"So you change mind? You want help from a Slytherin?" She waited patiently and studied Sirius's face as he was about to answer. They have never talked about houses at home, a Black was not supposed to go anywhere else than to Slytherin, though occasional Ravenclaws did happen... But by his act in last three months, Bella come to believe that her cousin despised the Green and Silver with passion.

That was another thing she was not having if there was anything that could be done about it. Bellatrix herself though about Slytherin as about the best of founders, yes, but she was aware, that he would not build the school alone. The years at Hogwarts, studying the history only fastened the belief.

She did not abhor any house, though she was proud of her pure blood, Black and Slytherin heritage. And Her cousin was not going to abhor any house either.

He finally looked like he was about to answer, so Bellatrix snapped out of her thoughts, and once again paid full attention to her cousin.

Sirius looked in her direction and tried to smile. "What about help from a cousin?" He looked unsure of himself.

It was not what she wanted him to accept, that there might be some Slytherins that are just fine, but it was the start. Bella walked back to the boys and undid her hood...

Potter still looked agitated and started a feeble protest about not needing any help, the protest cut off by Sirius' elbow. Young Black scion fixed his friend a look and said "I don't know how about you, but I don't feel like running from Filch tonight, and if they manage to link you and me to these idiots" he pointed at the Flint and his gang "we will land in trouble faster than you can imagine, and this Slytherin is my cousin, so behave, James" Bella smiled at her cousin, there was hope for him yet...

"So get under the cloak, no stepping on my foots, and try not to elbow me to death, gents, Cousin Bella will escort you home" James still looked agitated but decided to not press his issues...

Some half hour later Bella stood in front of the Fat lady and was about to release her charges. She was a bit sore, despite both boys"s best effort to not elbow, or stomp her to death. Her invisible cloak was not intended for three people, not even three kids...

"so, remember, the wands must be hard to find, but not impossible, and put them somewhere dry, so the water doesn't get to them... And boys, one more thing..." for a second she thought of right words "What you did tonight. When I was fighting the last two, that was the most Gryffindor thing I ever saw. You could have, and should have limp away, but you did not. It was stupid, irrational, should not have ever succeeded, but you pulled it off. Perhaps there is something to your house and hope for you two yet..." with that she disappeared under the cloak and went to her bed, leaving two slightly confounded lions behind.

James looked at his pal, and asked: "did she just insult us, or complimented us?" Sirius could not but laugh "that is Cousin Bella for you, James, I don't know if anyone understands her, perhaps my father..." Behind them, the Fat lady caught and spat out "are you coming in, or no? Some people like to sleep at the night, you know?" Both friends grinned at each other, and James declared "Ursa Major" before slipping through the passage to the common room.


	2. House matters

Beatrix spent most of the next two days preparing for inevitable. Flint and his Lackeys all were running around the castle with other students and finding their wands. She knew that once this problem will be solved, next thing in their order of business will be to deal with whoever caused them grief.

She even warned Sirius not to loiter around on his own until she can deal with the Slytherin trash. Sirius accepted the news with one serious nod, quite to he surprise. Bella was pleased with that. That brat was going to be Lord Black, Warlock in his own right, and head of her house one day. Bellatrix would hate to have foolish irresponsible man-child to in that capacity. Sirius even promised to keep James from going on misadventures of his own, though he had a very sour expression as he said that.

Now it was shortly after dinner, Bellatrix has been sitting in the common room intentionally breaking her homework routine to be seen... Her strategy soon yielded intended results. Flint accompanied by two of his bulkier henchmen walked right behind her, casting a shade over her History textbook. Textbook she used because it was accepted by binns, not because it had much in common with reality...

She dutifully continued scribing down notes. pretendning to learn about how the third Goblin uprising Did-Not-Happen ignoring her bulky housemates. They would not dare to hurt her in front of the entire house if you did that, you were as good as dead. At least social wise.

So Bellatrix was drawing the silence, decided not to grace the baboons with acknowledging their existence. She knew that sooner or later they will cave in.

And they did, notably Flint himself. he always made the point of letting his underlings know, that they aren't there to Talk, or Think, or do anything he has not ordered. "Stupid approach," Bella thought, not entirely sure why...

Be it as it may Flint finally decided to grace her with a warm greeting, well as close as he could get to one, grunting something that sounds suspiciously like her surname: "Black..."

She made point of finishing the sentence and ending it with a more pronounced dot then would be necessary before deadpanning "It is Miss Black, as would any gentleman know without reminding..." Still, she did not grace them with looking even in their general direction.

"A lady would know her place, and would not intervene with someone else"s business" Well that was elaborated for Flint, perhaps he took some lessons on "how to not look like my chimpanzee cousin"...

Bella took a second to weight pros and cons of her retort... Then, as casually, as she could, with a wee bit of disdain she shot back "and what business do you have in mind, Mister Flint?" She started scribing next sentence in her notepad. Looking supremely unconcerned about the mass of teenage hormonal disbalance standing next to her seat.

"You know well which business I meant, Black. Don't play stupid hussy..." That was supposed to get her angered, and it worked. To Flint's dismay, Bella was firmly in control of her anger this time. Using it to fuel her resolve, to win the confrontation, rather than letting it to rule her judgement.¨

Again as she finished the sentence, she asked again "Could you be more precise as to which business of yours have I interrupted? Loitering around the castle? fanboying about our wreck of a team? Or..." she delivered the last hit with disdain dripping of her voice "beating up the firsties?" At this point, a good half of the common room was looking at them. Bella turned her attention back to the textbook or at least pretended to do so...

She knew that, unless something goes horribly wrong, they stood no chance against her in this arena. the point was not to score a victory but to let the rest of the house, know that she did.

Flint looked like raging bull, well Bullock... "They were loitering our part of the castle with their trash... Someone had to do something, to punish their insolence". Well, he was certainly taking lessons in the adult talk, but Bellatrix would demand back every knut he paid for it. What a dreadful style really...

"Someone had to punish their insolence?" Bellatrix has put enough vitriol in her voice to poison everyone in the castle few times over. "Tell me, how many grown-up men does it take to punish two insolent firsties?" Bella has not wait for his answer and went on "I would bet that less than six... I would bet, that anyone worth green and silver would come with some cunning plan to do it on their own... I would definitely expect something more intricate than hexing them in the oblivion"

She smiled, it was not a nice smile, in time people would dread seeing it... "I would definitely expect them to be smarter than to bully two scions of respected pureblood families, who can not defend themselves... I would expect them to not be the disgrace to our house" That was not what they expected.

Fools they got around with a combination of mediocre skill, brute strength, and cruelty for long enough, that they started believing, that that's what you need to win the game... Now Flint and co. were out of the water. Badly so.

"So... it was you who stopped us?" Flint was trying to sound like the menace in the room, but it came out rather confused... "It was you who had us running around the castle as a bunch of idiots, searching for wands?" Alright, now he was menacing. Well, as menacing as 14-year-old boys with voice mutations come. "You made us into running joke?!" Had she not have iron cast faith in her abilities and privilege of her family, she might be frightened by him. This way she simply bared her teeth a bit more for a moment, before she reigned herself again. This battle was not going to be won by yelling.

It was time for her coup de grace...

First get the audience on your side, her uncle taught her: "Flint, confirm your petty insolence, people are learning or resting here..." that elicited some snickers from the older students. Bella had them where she wanted them, not that it was very hard. No one liked Flint.

Then accept a point of your adversary, minor point mind you: "Well you are right, it was me, who stopped you. Not that it was too hard..." and try to add small pun to negate the acceptance...

Next step is taking enemy"s point and put it in the question: "Was it me who have you looking like a joke? Or you? I honestly don't know..."

Last step, root enemy"s statement out: "And you are wrong, the idea with the wands was mine, but the execution goes to Messers Black and Potter..." She looked around the room and there were smiles on most faces.

"So let me get one thing straight with you, Flint, You will do good for yourself, and your lackeys, if you keep them of my cousins back, and his friends too" Bella smiled "and also you will lay off first years entirely, fight people who can fight back..." This was a risk, it was not in the Slytherin nature to be protective of others regardless their house... Flint knew that and pushed back "And why would I do that? They aren't Slytherins or purebloods, so why bother"

To Bellatrix" mild surprise it was Alexandra Nott, sixth-year prefect, who stood up and pierced Flint with a look she usually kept for miscreants who failed positions and needed remedial lessons "Why bother? Flint, are you as stupid as you look? Why bother? Well for once because of reputation. Ever heard the phrase cloak and dagger? We Slytherin are supposed to be cunning and resourceful, not brawls and bullies. had I knew what your little party is up to, I would ground you in the common room, for months... You make us all look stupid and violent..." She looked at them "One more time I heard about you harassing firsties, and Bellatrix Black will be the least of your problems!"

She sat back. The present snakes look at her in awe. Notts were known for having a temper, and Alexandra was no exception, but to enforce rules with such vigour. That simply was not usually done in the Slytherin. Yet banding up to bully firsties was not done either and most students apparently agreed with their prefect.

Bella decided to end the confrontation here and now. She grasped Flint's tie, and whispered, so he was only one to hear "and by the way, you are as blind as you are stupid, that was my cousin Sirius, the heir to the Black family fortune and influence, you attacked, do it one more time, and we will have our revenge. You will find no work, no place to be, we will make squib of you..." then she purred as a cat "did you expect me to threaten you with the death, Artie? How could you, death is soo mundane and quick..." with that she released him and send him away in a lordly manner.

Bellatrix went back to scribing useless notes for few minutes, before heading to her bedroom to study in more quiet place. Bellatrix could not help it, but she was quite proud of herself on that evening...


	3. Setting ground

Bella spent next week after cutting Flint and co. to the size, by thinking about her cousin and his nonexistent defence skills. If her own defence lessons were anything to go by, it was not Sirius who was at fault.

Jason Underwood was a great Duelist, no doubt. Yet Bella considered him incapable to teach the house elf how to prepare a cup of tea. what little she has learned from lessons in this semester was learn in "monkey see, monkey do" manner. She was quite sure that teachers should be able to teach, but that problem was beyond her pay grade, for now...

For now, she had a cousin who did not know the first thing about fighting and was flamboyant enough to get in fights each odd Monday, and even Friday... Well, he knew the first thing about fighting, take down the enemy whatever the cost. He just did not know how to use magic to get it done.

She thought about how could she Help, she could not shadow Sirius 24/7/12. Nor could she give him the invisible cloak it would eventually end in Filch"s office. Invisible cloaks were quite hard to come by. Not even for someone with her Allowance and her pedigree. So the only thing she could do without making a fuss was to wear her enchanted medallion and pray that she doesn't end up with too many burns. Sirius would get into too many close calls to handle anyway. The solution: "Do nothing. Just scramble up whenever your hothead of a cousin get his arse in trouble" did not sound good to her.

She had to make the fuss. But she was in Slytherin for a reason. If a true Slytherin is going to make a fuss, it's going to be well planned and executed fuss.

Bellatrix ran over her options.

She knew that intervening with Underwood will get her nowhere, prefects and heads of houses already tried that. Even Dumbledore went as far, as to call him by his surname in public. It was public knowledge that the only way "Professor" Underwood can keep his tenure was if no one else shows interest in the position.

She also considered bullying Sirius into trying his luck in Professor Flitwick's Defence club, but that would not do. Flitwick made it crystal clear, that in this academic year he will only admit students preparing for O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s. Bellatrix did not blame him. She understood the importance of both exams very well, even if She could flunk both and still be fine... Most students would have their lives determined by results. Besides she had a lot of respect for small Charm Master, charms being her second favourite after DADA, well first favourite, this semester.

She could teach the little bugger herself. Bella knew that her skills still leave a lot to be desired. She had no business to call herself defence, scratch that, battle master, for years to come. But she knew just as sure, that she could not be as incompetent a Teacher as Underwood was.

But to do so she would need time and place. Time she could manage with ease, she stopped bothering with doing any work for Underwood, and the divination master back in September, when she found both being unable to teach... But the place was hard, yes they could do theory in the library, or in the great hall between the meals. Practical part was however not that easy.

She did not fancy finding a secluded spot on the grounds, and using magic in corridors was forbidden. Bella obeyed that rule unless there was a major emergency, "upkeep small rules, so no one suspects you of breaking the big ones" was one of the Blacks rules to power...

Bellatrix needed to borrow a classroom. That was not unheard of for the clubs and study groups, but to do so she had to ask the Deputy headmistress McGonnagal.

Now has she liked McGonagall? No, she was too much of a Dumbledore person to get Bella to like her... But she respected the Transfiguration master as a capable witch. Bella was also comfortable with her no-nonsense approach. Also, She had to give her, that she kept her House aleigance out of the classroom. Bellatrix was quite good in Transfiguration. It was not unheard of for her to claim five points for Slytherin here and there for mastering a spell as first of the class.

If she was to ask for a place to run her own defence club she needed a charter and approval of the Prefect. Charter, she could do right now... Bella went to her suitcase and took out the arch of letter-paper. It had the Black crest in the head, Bella was looking forward to her seventeen birthday, as she would be allowed her personal crest from there on...

But now she had to write a request for an official study group that would be granted an empty classroom to practice. And she needed to find a Prefect that will support her request.

As for Prefect, she knew exactly which one to approach, she thanked Alexandra Nott earlier for standing by her. Nott told her, that she just did her duty of Prefect and Slytherin, and was rather unwilling to take the praise, commending of Bellatrixes own initiative to solve the problem... Perhaps it was time to ask for a favour...

She found Alexandra Nott, pacing on her usual patrol route near the library. Bella learned fast that Prefects were much more approachable when you offered some excitement to otherwise dull part of prefect duties. And prowling around the library must be boring.

Bellatrix put up her best polite expression and approached the older girl "Hello, Miss Nott, I hate to trouble you, but I need prefects permission for a study group, would you be so kind, and grant it please?". She meant every bit of the politeness. While Notts weren't even close to Blacks on pureblood pecking order, Alexandra was an embodiment of what a respectable Slytherin should be, and could get far on her own skills, Bellatrix respected that.

She was also a bit aloof so being on the polite side was better to play it safe. Bella was therefore surprised when Nott smiled at her and took the paper reading it with visible interest... "So... you had decided to rectify the sorry state of DADA lessons, especially for your cousin, as I understand... now I will second your request, if you promise, that not all of the students will be Slytherins. It would look too much like we hoard the knowledge. Which we do, but let us not yell it out for entire castle to hear... Shall we, miss Black?" She gave the younger Slytherin a warm smile, that made her face, framed with brown curly hair, look much friendlier than Bella ever saw at the older girl...

That was confusing for Bella. Yes, there was no ill will between them, but also no particular liking, that Bella knew of...

However, her ways were way too ingrained in her, to let the opportunity down, so she returned the smile and said: I was intending to bring in some Gryffindors at first anyway, until my Sister goes in Hogwarts it will probably be my cousin Sirius, and his friends" then she drop silent for a second as if she had to deliberate what to say next "But I doubt that I will be willing to teach my housemates, I mean higher years are mostly fine, but the people like Mulciber... they should be teatched when not to draw wands before they get their first lesson at "How" I am no muggle lover, but the kind of stuff they do, do us no good" She would wage good part of her allowance at the assumption that Alexandra was a moderate... But she needed to know for sure.

Said girl slowly nodded "I can not deny it, you have class, so do few others, but most, they act almost like Gryffindors... Sorry, I should not use you as a willow, after all, I am the Prefect, I should be there for you all" She looked bit embarrassed.

Now, Bella had her where she wanted her. She has acquitted herself with Alexandra and was now seen as valuable and trustworthy, at least to a degree.

She had yet to understood where does the older girl fit in her world, but she felt that she should treat her right. Alexandra took a stand with her, she might have an ulterior motive, but it did not look like it was the case.

"And who says that prefects aren't humans?" offered Bella, and Alexandra chuckled "You would be surprised how many people, I was told by a student who is no longer with us, that I have to be a vampire after taking twenty points from him for public showing... of course that was another thirty points for racist remark..." Bella laughed and locked her gaze in older girls eyes "You helped me, twice now, count on me if you will need help, but I still need that signature" Bellatrix pointed at paper Alexandra was holding and offered her muggle fountain pen "I found these being very practical..." Alexandra gave the pen an unsure look and signed on the dotted line. Handing the paper to Bella she said: "It may not be my place, given your family, but when alone, Id appreciate to go by first names, what do you think?" She looked a bit wary, but Bellatrixes extended hand cut of any doubts that Alexandra might have about her attempt at befriending Bella.

As the older girl shook her hand, Bella was quite proud of herself, simply by standing for what she thought to be right, she managed to get a trustworthy ally.

Her aunt would probably babble something about the importance of true blood and insignificance of Notts. But Bella was quite sure what would her Uncle and Father say. They would nod, and say "well done Bellatrix" and that was all she wanted.

Also, she was happy to gain a friend...

Our young would be defence teacher was nervous winning over her housemate was easy. Bellatrix knew for a fact that winning over McGonagall will be much harder.

She needed a plan. Minerva McGonagall was not one to succumb to flattery the way her own head of house would... Nor she was airy headed intelligent like Flitwick, and she most definitely was not Pomona Sprout... With her near omnipresent faith in people. Bellatrix needed to put her best foot forward with Minerva if she wanted to get her approval.

Because of that, when she knocked on the doors of McGonagall's office, Bella was quite nervous. Not that she let it be seen. there were quite some advantages coming with being raised as a Black. ¨

She was holding a folder with what curriculum she set up for first three months of getting Sirius in fighting condition. It was advanced for a , but in her opinion, it was the bare minimum. She had thrown together Disarming, Stunning, bonding and stinging hex, several forms of shield charm, and its various uses. And some spells that weren't nominally defensive, but had dual use on top.

Checking her appearance for one last time, our young snake entered the lion's den and took a seat once offered.

Now, she liked McGonagall and her style well enough. Yet someone should let her know that there actually are elegant strict looking chairs that are not torture devices. Yet she gave away no sign of discomfort and accepted obligatory ginger newt.

After the initial courtesies were observed, McGonagall went straight to the business. McGonagall took the last sip of her cup and looked straight at Bella"s eyes "So miss Black, am I to understand, that you want to train your younger schoolmates to fight, as you believe our current DADA lessons to be less than fruitful, which sadly is quite true... and ask me to provide the place for it?" well that sounded bad. But Bellatrix was not going to be intimidated.

"Yes professor, that would be correct" she knew that this was just a first round a probe of the sort. McGonagall was not stupid enough to need to ask her for reason of her defence study group. But for some reason, she wanted to hear her answer. Bellatrix would wage that the strict teacher wanted to see her reaction when "accused". The next question seemed to fit that pattern well "What moved you to make this decision?" to McGonagall" credit she let no accusatory undertone in her voice, but the question still carried the undertone of "Why would selfish noble born Slytherin like you want to train other people?". And if Bellatrix wanted to be brutally honest with herself, then the sentiment was well deserved.

And she was brutally honest with herself. "The worst mistake a politician can do is to believe his own lies" was another of Orion Black"s sayings.

But she had distinct feeling that McGonagall would not believe her lies either. in such cases, she would generally go with half-truth, and this time it was surprisingly easy to cook one up "Professor, I believe, that both of us know, that Hogwarts currently have Bully shaped problem... And, Yes it is disproportionately Slytherin problem. I feel that it is in our interest, my House and my Family"s both to do something about it..."

Also, I have a cousin already in this castle, and two more come September, through Narcissa might go to Beauxbatons... I will play fair with you professor, my family being on the line is a big part of my motivation, but if we Slytherins will not make a stand now, the results might be dire..." What surprised Bellatrix was that she actually believed her statement.

She knew for the fact that during her grandfather's time it was frowned upon but not unheard of for Slytherin to befriend or date Gryffindor. Few even choosing muggle-born ones.

It grew extremely rare in her parents time and was unheard of nowadays. Her father made an observation of civil war being possible. Bellatrix did not fully understand his logic and reasons, but it was unnerving. She did not want to fight any war if she had a say in it.

"Results? What kind of results you speak about, Miss Black?" She now gave young witch sitting opposite to her even more attention. Minerva knew Bellatrix as an intelligent and very capable witch. She also knew that being the oldest of Black kids, Bella must have obtained some education in matters of history and politics. But she has never made any statement, that was not transfiguration related, in Minerva"s presence.

"Hate," said Bella "on itself most of the incidents are pranks, and jokes, something Peeves would do... The actual bullying is rare. And Miss not does good job curbing it," Bellatrix had few ways to repay Alexandra for her help, dropping respectful remark of her to McGonagall was one that cost her nothing...

"But, if this is the only face of Slytherin the other houses are going to see, it will end up with hate. They dislike us well enough, as it is, and you do too,"Minerva"s face gave away that Bella hit home with a flinch of anger, but she did not cut the young students speech "And you are frankly said right... If the only interaction we show is bullying and condescending ignorance, then we deserve to be hated and in due time dealt with..." the silence that followed was heavy with what Bella left unspoken. Dealt with meant either forced disestablishment of current social order... Or worse yet, a full-blown civil war. The war that would kill hundreds.

"so that is why I am going to offer training to whoever might want to train. There has to be Slytherin, visibly taking a stand. But I will make no fool of you. I will focus on helping my relatives first and above all" McGonagall gave a sharp nod "As could be expected from a Black. One thing no one can blame your family for is not being shy of taking an action when you think one is necessary. Well enough Miss Black. I will grant you use one of the classrooms for the entirety of weekends, and I will grant you permission to teach up to ten students at the time. You can teach as few as you want, but I would be grateful if you would accept at least few students who are not your relatives. I condone your intention, but I do not condone of nepotism. Also, I can decide to drop by, at any time I so chose, is that understood?" Bella gave her own nod, more solemn, than McGonagall"s, but added "I accept, but I will take a month to work with my cousin and his friend only, hope that that is acceptable" to which McGonagall said "It is, but its the last concession you are getting, if after that month you will not accept further students, or will attempt to discourage them from joining, I will take away your privileges, and I will be quite disappointed..." Bellatrix nodded once again, now she only had one care to solve, how to make Sirius and his friend learn from her...

After she excused herself, Bellatrix headed for the library to ponder on the issue.


	4. Recruiting

Wel the paperwork now done, Bellatrix needed one last thing for her study group, students. More specifically pair of young Gryffindors to begin with. She had no interest in keeping her efforts secret, it would serve better to have all potential bullies deterred and seeking other victims than to have them facing one nasty surprise from Sirius. Especially as she might not be able to get him in good enough shape fast enough.

That meant that she needed to bully them into joining, shall the need be. Also, she needed to make it as public, as she possibly could... So where and when she could catch the Sirius and James in public? The great hall at the breakfast time.

She would definitely make a fuss this time though...

She came to breakfast a bit later that day to make sure that Sirius will already be there. And sure he was. sitting with James and two firsties she had not known, also with some Weasley, which one she did not know. And who does? They are simply too numerous to count them all.

So Bella strolled down by the Gryffindor table, noting all the looks she was getting, but not letting it be seen. Most looked at her with some combination of wariness and anger... one or two with fear.

When she arrived at where Sirius was sitting, Bella was positive, that the entire hall has already taken note.

Smiled at Sirius, that got his attention well enough. Bellatrix rarely smiled in public, and she almost never laughed. Sirius was in bad mood, he and his friends were to face double lesson of History in few minutes. But he did his best to sound pleasant when greeting his cousin with a nod and saying: "Good morning, Bella, what brings you here?"

Bellatrix faked an offended face and said: "Why? Can I not simply drop for a breakfast with my cousin? I do like you, you know?" to which Sirius answered: "You can, but you rarely make fuss of it for no reason at all" He gestured to a free spot next to him "but have a seat"

At this moment the redhead started a protest "Sirius, she is a Snake, we will not have snakes at this table" earning very annoyed looks from both Sirius, Bellatrix and to his surprise even a mildly annoyed one from James.

Bella fought an urge to down him with a good stinging hex, or better yet ticking one... he has not yet deserved her anger, but being a nuisance to Bellatrix Black was not advisable either.

Sirius saw his cousin"s stare and knew that Jack Weasley is in for a good dishing, at very least. He has already seen what his cousin is capable with curses and with words, she was already the force to reckon with.

And he wanted nothing of that at his breakfast. there was but one way, how to make Bellatrix drop the insult, to solve it himself. So he made a dismissive gesture in Bellatrix way and pierced Jack with one more stare...

"Jack, you will be kind enough not to call my cousin A Snake, else there will be trouble. She can sit with us, You may not believe me, but she fought off a band of Slytherin hooligans, that got us with the posters two weeks ago" That seemed to satisfy Jack for a second, but then he spouted "and why would a Slytherin protect Gryffindor?"

Sirius understood the question, be it any other Slytherin, he would ask it himself. But the words were accompanied by such a malicious tone, that he did not feel at all sympathetic towards Jack. Badmouthing some abstract Slytherins, Sirius could and likely would join his housemate. It was not nice, and deep down he knew that it was not kosher, to say the least.

But this was His Cousin, the brat was talking about, his cousin who he might not like the best, but who helped when necessary. His cousin who went to fight six bastards to save him from bullying...

Sirius was a bit surprised, but he actually felt really angry about it, but he was Black enough to settle emotions aside to be examined later and deal with miscreant at hand first.

His face grew darker, and Sirius looked at Jack the way you look at the dog who chewed yet another boot... "Jack, this is my cousin we talk about, I bet that had you have a cousin in Slytherin, you would not want me to insult them. I don't want you to insult Bellatrix, and this is the last time I am polite, next time your mouth open it better be speaking something polite..." he considered the issue solved and turned his attention back to his cousin, Bella sat at the table and in the meantime helped herself to a cup of coffee. How could she drink it, he did not know...

"So, Bella, why did you decide to upset every one of my house? Got a statement to make?" Bella sipped her coffee and deadpanned "Haven't I made one already, Siri?" She had a look of honest curiosity on her face, but Sirius was not buying that one, his cousin was testing him, he knew that much. But what was this test about? Also, the nickname irked him some, but not as much as it would a month ago. If someone takes up a fight for you, you don't go and complain about them using a term of endearment.

"Well, you certainly did..." Sirius chuckled "come to mind it is shame, that you are making the fuss by just sitting here, but have that be the point, you would do it a long time ago" He took a bite from his toast and some beans before he went on... "I guess that whatever you plan, the last fight is the reason why are you doing it" for this Bellatrix rewarded him with a small not and look of approval from Bella, then she prompted him with another question...

"and what kind of fuss do you think I am up to? No good?" Sirius totally knew that that one was a test. Anybody in the Gryffindor would most likely say "Yes" without thinking. And so would Sirius, if it was about any other Slytherin, but not about his cousin.

Bellatrix could be up to no good, but was not necessarily so. Sirius knew that she subscribed to the Family above all else, the narrative of his Father and uncle, one that was less gross than what his mother spouted around if he had to be honest with himself.

So when he finally made his mind about the answer he said: "Depend on the perception I guess, definitely you are not going to hurt the family, right?" he got a nod in response.

"No, I am going to protect it" that made Sirius curious, he could imagine several ways of such protection, and few were to his liking. Most appalling was the notion of being told to "befreind" some of older students whose families were indebted to Blacks, to act as his guard...

"How," he asked, thinking of other options, there were artefacts providing quite a lot protection to the wearer, even as a mere first year he knew that. But most of these were considered Dark and hence of limits at school.

He also did not fancy the notion of his cousin scrambling in the fight whenever he gets in the trouble. Sirius did not like the idea that he needed saving at the first place, but also he felt a pang of guilt at the position his inability to defend himself put Bellatrix in...

Of course, she could do so, and he had little doubt that she would, definitely after the last showdown, that night he saw Bella in whole new light, as a power to reckon with... He dared not to think about things she might do if he got seriously hurt.

But Sirius Black wanted to be his own person, and in that moment he understood that being his own person means being able to stand for himself. With violence, if necessary.

Bella left her cousin a few moments to think before dumping the news on him: "I got a permission to run small version of the Flitwick defence club, and you are going to attend, as is James Potter, and whoever you regularly hang out with, if they want to." she was looking straight into his eyes, and her facial expression left no place for doubt. This was an order.

An Order, he did not like. An Order he felt like taking the proper reaction to the level nine. An Order, he knew, was not for debate. An order he would follow whatever else will happen.

James, however, had not had the experience that comes with growing up with Bellatrix Black and was going to oppose being ordered around by her. Sirius did not know which side to take, he would love to side with his friend, after all, most of his family and their values did little so far to grow on him, except Bellatrix"s occasional compassion and Andromeda"s good heart.

Yet, he knew that she was right, they needed training and the professor they had was a joke of a teacher... His cousin was surely capable enough and invested enough to teach them all basics of defence. So he decided to wait for James and his arguments against and then make his decision.

James for one was surprisingly polite when he started speaking "look, Black, I am grateful for your help, without you, the bastards would be taking shots at us with stinging hex even now. Also, I don't know what did you do, but they keep from all firsties nowadays. You are not all bad, but you ask a lot, you know? Coming here and ordering us around. People will think that we are cool with Slytherin, and you with Gryffindor, ain't gonna be good for any of us" Sirius was proud of his friend.

Bella took a while before responding to young Gryff, first, she mercilessly wiped the anger, yes, he was dismissing her offer of help... But she knew that Potter tried his best at being diplomatic about it. She owed him the same courtesy. And he did think of potential repricutions for her as well or at least pretended to do so.

Lord, was this house animosity tiring at times... Especially since Sirius had his head about not going in the Slytherin...

"Yes, I know what I am asking, Potter, I am asking you to step over no man"s land, and to put your very reputation in the risk. I am asking you to put your trust into someone your parents would most likely disprove with vigour" at this point James almost unwillingly nodded... "and I am asking you to do thing many of our classmates see as a treason nowadays, am I correct? Also thanks for being a polite young gentleman, and for pointing that I put my skin on the line as well if we are doing this" She gave James small smile " it's tiresome really, given that Godric and Salazar were once thick as thieves..." Bella chuckled at their times, if our predecessors were acting the way we do nowadays, I bet that they would be getting a lot of common detentions processing some slimy potions ingredients down in the dungeons, or ploughing the school garden muggle way..." that elicited a chuckle from Sirius and few more. Even James smiled.

"Also You are not going to do it for me and I am not going to do it for you, if that is any comfort, I am the bad Slytherin, protecting the family interests, in this case, Sirius well-being and you are good Gryffindor, protecting your friends safety, will that work?"

She felt that she was getting there, but that pushing further right now would be stupid. She would let the Potter boy think it all over and count on Sirius giving him a good advice, so she added "I sure as hell am training Sirius, as for you, I would love to teach you, mostly to be honest as a way of protecting Sirius, but I can not make you. Make your mind about it..." she finished her coffee, and turned to Sirius "We will see each other on Saturday at nine, get your wand and something you can exercise in, got it?" Sirius nodded without great enthusiasm, but nodded anyway.

Bellatrix felt that she accomplished, what could be accomplished that morning. She gave one arm hug to her cousin, just to annoy him a bit, and stood up. Looking at her pocket watch she reminded them "and you two have History in few minutes. Sirius, don't listen to anything Binns say, and read it in good books, got it?" that got another few smiles...

With that, she departed


	5. First lesson

On Saturday Bellatrix set her alarm clock on six in morning, an hour earlier than her usual, another useful muggle invention most of her housemates abhorred... But Bella abhorred being late much more. And she had at least one student counting on her being ready to teach him at nine o clock in the morning, sharp.

Ment she had to be ready at ten to nine. And she wanted to have time to enjoy her breakfast as well.

When she entered her new classroom for the first time she was very glad that she rose an hour earlier... The classroom was not in use for quite some time. She was not even sure, that she would be able to fix all that needed fixing her own power and in time.

However, she was not dependent on her own power, not entirely anyway.

"Kreacher?" she called and with a small puff, the house elf appeared. "what can Kreacher do for young Miss?" he asked. They got along just fine. Sirius, on the other hand, had an axe to grind against whomever who was more loyal to his mother than to his father. Kreacher fell into that camp, not that Bella blamed her cousin. Walburga Black was not easy to love at the best of times...

She waved her hand encompassing the room and said: "Kreacher, I need this all to be cleaned. Once done you will help me with moving the furniture. Will you be so kind?" She always kept polite when talking to house elves. They would die for her no question asked if she would order them to, that demanded some respect.

The Elf was done with the cleaning in but a few minutes, still leaving two hours before Bella planned to start the lesson. She instructed Kreacher to move the desks and other furniture all to one wall and secure it there. Bellatrix had no intention of seeing it falling to the ground if a misdirected curse hit the pile. As Bellatrix could imagine, Professor McGonagall would not take kindly to injuries coming from her defence club.

But that boded a question... What will her students sit on, not that she expected them to sit around a lot. She thought about it for a moment, and then she remembered: "Kreacher would you get me some sitting pillows?" She knew that the Elf cannot simply conjure them out of thick air. So she added: "Take them from my room" she would not be using these for a few weeks from now, so why not use them.

Two cracks later Kreacher brought in several sitting pillows from her couch, all Royal Blue, with black trim. "yes, that will do, thank you, Kreacher, that will be all" Elf bowed and smiled happily "Kreacher is happy to serve Miss Bella, Miss Bella is always kind to Kreacher, Kreacher wish that young Master Sirius be so kind..."

Bella stopped her thought train for a second... She knew that Sirius is not cruel by nature, his treatment of Kreacher had to have a reason. Just what reason might that be, other than Kreacher being so loyal to her Aunt? Likely nothing else, she was sure that Elf was not willfully disrespectful to Sirius.

Sirius might tell her if she asks, but she was not stupid, and there were two rather obvious reasons. She looked the elf in the eyes and asked: "Do you speak to Sirius about his mother, or tell her about what Sirius does?"

She got a nod on the first count and hesitant nod on the second. That was not good. If Aunt Walburga turned Kreacher a spy, even Bellatrix might run into the problems sooner or later.

For a while, she remained silent, then she told the Elf "Kreacher, stop talking to Sirius about his mother, and stop reporting on him as well..."

Kreacher made a very unhappy face: "Kreacher cannot obey young miss. Kreacher will punish himself harshly, but he can not obey"

Bellatrix forgot that Aunt Walburga outranked her in the pecking order. But she did not outrank her husband...

"Kreacher, you will not punish yourself, but you will go and tell Master Orion what you have told me". She knew for sure that Orion Black would not suffer spying being done in his house, long as he had anything to say about it.

With that, she released Kreacher and took a strode down to the great hall. When she arrived most seats at the house tables was empty, and no one sat at the teacher's table. Bella liked it that way. She could stand lively lunch or outright rowdy dinner, but she liked her breakfast quiet most of the time...

She got through three toasts, and a plate of ham and eggs, unladylike as that may be (and her mother would sure remind her). Bellatrix was enjoying her second cup of coffee when the players of Slytherin Quidditch team entered the hall. They apparently were after a heavy training as one could tell by their red faces, but at least there were no fans this time. She let out a breath, not that she was afraid of a few hooligans, they ought better to be afraid of her, thank you very much!

But any chance of having an uninterrupted quiet meal would go right out of the window...

Her moment of serenity did not last long though... Or so she thought.

Someone took a seat opposite to her, and Bellatrix almost instinctively made an expression of disinterest and annoyance before a familiar melodic alt broke her determination to ignore the outer world for time being: "I am sorry if I interrupt, Bellatrix..."

Bella immediately scolded her features with a nice smile and respond "Not at all Alexandra, I just don't like to deal with anybody but my friends before having a breakfast..."-"An apology with an in-built piece of flattery... You are a daughter of your house, truth to be said" her new fair-haired prefect friend took a cup and filled it with tea leaving no place for milk, took a slice of bread and put some jam on it before she spoke again: "So I have heard that you got your study group granted... and that you started recruiting... Please, next time when you plan such a stunt tell me if you can, I would love to see it, A Slytherin sitting at the Gryffindor table and speaking of founders... I can but imagine all the disbelief, but you did well" That made Bella smile a bit. True she was showing of, but she thought that it was well worth the outcome and seeing her point validated by the older girl did flatter her a bit.

"Well in two months time we start accepting other students, and we will have meetings each Saturday at nine. You are quite welcome to come visit, as I cheated you for a show the last time"

Alexandra smiled: "Fair enough, I take it, you made your cousin into accepting your teaching?" Bellatrix allowed her face to look a bit self-satisfied and said "Yes, and I bet that he made some of his friends to join too. Hopefully, he will never need a guard, but if yes, it better be of some use". Bella was reasonably sure that she will insist at Sirius having a guard as a head of house anyway.

She was not about finding her cousin murdered if such a thing could be prevented. As she thought of that Flint and his pose come for breakfast, they sat about as far from Bellatrix and Alexandra as they could, not that any of girls minded.

The looked like they were out of the castle for some sort of training, Bella did not approve of that. She liked her bullies soft and relatively safe to handle, thank you very much!

Alexandra noted the group as well and apparently was no more fond of them, working on their ability to beat and intimidate people, any more than Bellatrix.

"Well", Bella thought "next time they try anything on Sirius he will know how to fight back, at least well enough to get away with his skin and make them think twice..."

She felt almost eager to see that happen... It must have manifested in her expression. Alexandra gave her a mildly concerned look and said: "You are pretty eager for training him, right?" Bella smiled, and told the older girl: "You have no idea..."

They talked over coffee until it was twenty to nine when Bellatrix excused herself and headed for her rented classroom. She would make sure to be there before any of her students would show up.

She would not have any of them getting second thoughts and quit due to her being late.

She made it with ten minutes of reserve. After giving last passing glance to the classroom itself Bella took a seat and pulled a muggle notebook from her bag. She then took out a pen and applied a little charm on it, so it would copy whatever she wrote on every page in the notebook.

She then makes a short form to write down the most essential information about her students and their wands. Bella could teach them the basics without much attention to what wand they have. But no matter what people said wand and especial core mattered a lot for advanced battle magic.

Her own was walnut and dragon heart. Suitable for Fiery magic, and destructive spells in general, and as she was quite aware, susceptible to darker influences as well. Not that Bella gave rat arse to whatever was ruled as dark by Ministry, but some stuff did take a dent at you if you used it too often.

Bella was quite keen on getting some serious power to wield, less keen on destroying her soul in the process though.

She ceased the spell on the pen and pre-filed what she knew about Sirius and James. Doing so, she found that she did not know what kind of core did Sirius wand have, nor the wood for that matter.

Bella mentally berated herself, she knew wands of her ancestors in the direct line back to the very start of 18th century and took pride in that. But she did not know her cousin"s wand, a wand she might one day depend on for survival...

She tamed her anger, it would do her no good. She would get the info first thing in the meeting.

Speaking of which, she checked her timepiece, she still had some five minutes, and there was one more thing to do.

Bellatrix undid her tie and the cardigan too, the classroom was thankfully warm enough to make do in the shirt alone. She would not pretend not being a Slytherin, but she did not think necessary to insert the fact while trying to teach a bunch of prejudiced Gryffindors, not that she blamed them for being prejudiced.

Not after the last week.

Before long five boys and two girls, all Gryffs made their way in the room, in quite some haste. She felt a sting of anger, she was not an acquaintance to be ashamed of...

Then she reigned herself again and rise up to meet them. They would need some more pillows she realised.

Sirius looked most content to be there, Potter looked a bit annoyed, a bit scrawny boy with walnut hair and several scars had an expression of polite interest and so did the girls. the last two boys gave Bella a bit of bad feeling.

One, almost a head shorter than Sirius, and truth to be said, a bit too chubby. The boy had a look of someone who really wants to be somewhere else, like in the different country.

Bella would teach him, but she would not count on him to not break under pressure. She would try to get to know more about him from Sirius as soon as possible. The other one, well Bella could tell a Longbottom when she saw one. As good and honest as Longbottoms were, they sometimes clung too hard to the rules and could be a royal pain in the arse, if her father was to be trusted. This particular Longbottom was giving an air of polite disinterest, and If Bella was to guess, he was only here because all his roommates were.

Well, she could only borrow few pages from Helga Hufflepuff and teach the lot...

"Welcome and have a seat" she conjured three more pillows. These would not last forever, just some day or two, but that would do. "For those of you who don't know me yet, I am Bellatrix Black, I think that we can forgo Misses and Misters, and call each other by first names. I do know some of you, but would you mind telling me your names, and your wand cores?"

In five minutes she had all the names and wand cores written down. The two boys she did not know were Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. Lupin sounded a bit familiar, but she could swear that she has never met nor heard of any Pettigrew, might be Muggleborn, but she did not know for sure.

Longbottom guy was one Frank Longbottom, son of Augusta Longbottom. The girls were Lily Evans and Alice Vance, now she was sure that Lily was a muggle-born. Some muggle-borns you could tell apart, a bit insecure, school uniform all the time, eager to learn about Hogwarts, and magic, the girl smelled of it.

Well, she could put it to the use.

Vance was not sticking out in any regard Bella could see at the moment, so she did not pay her much mind. This was all about Sirius, compared to him rest of them were window dressing to Bellatrix.

Through Potter, she had some liking for, he had a fighting spirit.

She nodded and looked around, then she spoke: "Welcome, As you must have noted, our current DADA teacher cant teach. I decided to try my hand at fixing that. I will hold these meetings weekly on Saturday and will teach you what I know of the defence..."

"Why would you?" she looked for the source of interruption, and sure enough, Longbottom. But the question was legit, so Bella tried her best to only come off mildly irritated "Because you hang with my cousin? Because you might need that? Becuase its right thing to do? Because I dislike bullying? Or because I just want to do it? Pick your poison, Frank..." That took quite some wind from his sails. He muttered something to the effect, "I will wait and see"

That was fine by Bella. But she was getting detracted... "we won't be sticking strictly to DADA stuff, quite a few charms have, say... creative use and I will give you some tips on what to do and don't do in a brawl. I will not make duelists of you, but once I am done with you lot, you will be able to pass final exams and make most bullies rue the day if they pick you as a practice target. Sound well?" She got few unpassionate nods, well this was but a beginning.

Bella would go to explain the safety rules "you will learn some quite dangerous spellwork as we proceed. And if I see any of you being a danger to the rest I can sack you on spot" She gave everybody, even Sirius a stern look, this was risky. Bella could well lose her new recruits, but she was not about to compromise safety, an injury could well bury the entire club before it even got started. Luckily no one seemed overly irked about it.

"we will first try each spell casting it on dummies, and when you know enough that it will make sense, we might start doing mock duels.

When we are"t casting, I don"t want to see any wands drawn, that apply all the time. Now talking about wands" she looked in her bag and handed them all identical leather holsters. the holsters were pretty basic, ten sickles a piece, but safe enough for use. "I am not ordering you to use these, but trust me you want to use them" Bella shoved the firsties how to fix the holsters on their forearms. She got some rolled eyes in turn, but all seven youngsters fixed their holsters and tried to put their wands in them.

Then she went on "If you have a question ask, but not when we are casting, I need to stay focused so no one gets harm"

James cut in "We know, stay safe and stuff..." She fixed him a glare "I want to teach you cutting curse before the end of the year, you don't want to lose a limb, I think?" He reluctantly nodded. and Bella went on for a few moments longer before she finished the introductory speech she more or less stole from her Father.

It was high time. Her students looked like she might have a rebellion on the hand if she introduced one more rule. Yet they managed to keep attention for most of the speech. Bella decided to count that as a success.

"Now, we start with something easy, anyone already knows Knockdown hex?" She got several questioning looks and nod from Frank and the redhead muggle-born, Lily Evans, she recalled. Odd, she would suppose that her Father would teach Sirius at very least some theory. Well, she will be fixing that in a moment.

Bellatrix brandished her wand and pointed it at the tin can with chalks, and said the spell, next thing the chalks were dispersed all over the classroom. The Pettigrew boy had an impressed look... Well at the end of the day he will be able to do the same

And she could use it to drill the "manual of arms" into her pupils. She went to the other side of the class and set up four targets. Bellatrix has not yet got proper dummies. But she got four targets, basically big weathercocks with two ten inch circles to hit. If hit the target would make a full rotation and ring a bell.

She would demand her students to hit such targets on the twenty yards but not today, they needed to start with lesser distance, ten paces should do.

"form a line, ten paces from the targets. Now, this spell is handy, the incantation is Cadere, and there is no precise wand movement needed. That means that you don't need nearly as much skill to hit your targets with accuracy. If done well it knocks down the target, and you have good shot at knocking their wands from them or causing mild concussion and you can run". She counted ten paces and draw a line on the floor making a cross in front of each target.

"James, Frank, Remus and Alice, take your marks and get ready!" Frank and James did not look all that happy with Bella as a range instructor, but all of them took the marks, while the other three remained seated.

"Wands at ready!" four wands were drawn. Not nearly fast enough, she would drop one or two of the boys before they would get to respond...

But that will improve over time, she knew that. Instead, she looked at their postures, well, at least she could not detect any bad habits to get rid off. She guessed that that was something to be grateful for.

"Open fire!" As she expected first three salvos were all misses, near misses if she could tell but miss anyway, her father would say that near miss only count with Feindfire and horseshoes...

Then Remus managed to connect his hex to the target and bell rang, once and then the second and third time, as well as one on the Alice"s target. "Very well, Remus. Keep that up Alice" she said, she needed them motivated. Soon enough James was also hitting more often than not, Bella would compliment him as well. Only Frank did only manage few hits at all, Bellatrix would give him closer look. Sure enough, he was clutching his wand bit too tightly. It was one of most common rookie mistakes, sadly one of the harder to unlearn too.

She would come to his firing line and told him: "Ease the grip Frank, you ain't swinging around a mace". She got a stinky eye from Longbottom and his mark went even more off then it was before, it was clear, that telling him will not do.

Bella took a stand to his right hand. She took his wand arm and showed him the right grip. Frank grew very irritated with her for doing so but tried to cast with the proper grip. His mark became substantially better, and soon he was hitting four times of five... Bellan got begrudging "thank you" for her trouble. After some five minutes more, she called for the ceasefire, and swapped both "squads". Bella contemplated keeping Frank on the range, to train his wrist a bit more, but she decided against it. It would do no good to single him out as underperforming.

Sirius was pretty good. But it looked like he had natural inclination to overwhelm the target with the volume of spellwork, rather than with accuracy. It was not a bad strategy sometimes, but Bellatrix would work with him to make his curses more accurate, she wanted him as dangerous as possible.

The Evans girl looked fine she mastered the spell on the first try, nothing to write home about, but nothing to look down to either. Pettigrew was facing some trouble, though.

Bella strolled past Sirius and started observing Peter, he could get the spellwork right after few tries, though she suspected that if she dug her heels she could take one or two hits and remain on her feet. His aim was so erratic, that he managed to hit Sirius" target at least twice.

"Peter, you need to focus and take your aim, you look like you are afraid of your own wand," she said, the flinch she saw was telling enough. She tried to give him a reassuring smile.

Bella took his hand, fixed his grip, unlike Frank"s Peter"s was too loose as if he was afraid that his wand grows a set of fangs and bite him... Bella noted that though he was scared of his wand, his magic was almost abnormally strong for a firstie, there may be a potential in him if someone manages to give the boy lead he might need...

She went through swapping both "squads" for a few more times until she was sure that everybody understood the spell. And more importantly the rules she imposed about the spellcasting.

When she saw Sirius putting his wand behind his ear, she told him that next time she sees that she send a stinging hex right up his arse. Sirius lost some of his usual cockiness for a while after that. He was sure that Bella meant her threat...

Then Bellatrix looked at her pocket watch. It was twenty minutes past ten, even with the introduction she had the seven of them drilling one, and admittedly a boring one, spell for almost an hour... A wonder that she hand no rebellion at hand by now.

She ordered the James" squad to holster wands and take a seat, before seating herself "Thank you, people... You all did good, it is not a hard spell but still, to master it within few tries speak high of you" she smiled, surprisingly she got few unsure smiles back, and a grin from Sirius. Well, no one could say that her cousin lacked in competitiveness, or that he did not know how to deal with praise. Good, because if she was taking him under her wing for the next five years she got left in Hogwarts he will be praised a lot...

"Now there are a plethora of spells that work the same as the one we have just trained, one I particularly like is the Auqaumenti charm, it has several benefits, I wonder if any of you can think of some?"

Frank was the first to answer: "it can flush out fires". That one was kinda obvious, Bellatrix was hoping for two more, particularly from the muggle-borns...

And sure enough Lily was next to answer: "You can keep the water going, and take down multiple targets, saw the police hosing down rioters with a water hose" when she noted the pale expression of the present purebloods, she added "it does not kill people, though you can end up wounded..."

When after a while no one was about to state the third advantage Bellatrix spoke herself "your opponent will have a harder time getting up again if the floor they stand on is flooded with water, and they may lose their balance again, unfortunately, we can't properly train this one in the castle, at least not until I clear that with Professor McGonagall, so I have a homework for all of you. Learn and train that spell, it's an elemental spell so you will have an easier time learning it when close to its actual element, meaning you might want to take a walk to Black Lake" Bella knew that they were still merely playing with basic spells, the curriculum of the first year was a joke, as the year itself was more for acclimatisation in Hogwarts then for a serious learning, but she still thought that such basic things should be learned first thing in the first year, well now they know.

She got few nods when she spoke of the "homework", good, now it would be a good time to dismiss the class. "Good, thanks for your time people, we will cut it now, and we will continue a week from now, the same time, I will have two spells for you so count on being here until the lunch on the next week, Good?"

She got a number of "Alright" not with much enthusiasm, but she did not care, "if they learn, that's enough for me", Bellatrix smiled and rose up walking with her student out of the classroom.

"Sirius I feel like taking a walk, will you walk with me?" she asked, Sirius looked a bit puzzled, but he nodded and joined his cousin...


	6. weekend warrior

Sirus was not entirely sure about this "remedial DADA lessons" when he first come in the classroom. Yet within a few minutes, he found that he actually quite liked the way Bella run her ship. She must have given a really good thought to the lesson plan, moving smoothly from point to the point, and he found the spell she taught them handy.

In the wind-down time, he found himself going over the spells he learned so far and thinking about which ones might do in a fight. He noted pretty fast that Cousin Bella paid him a bit more attention than the others. But she still watched over his classmates and always kept a good awareness of her "class".

Oddly enough she was more friendly and engaging than he ever saw Bella to be with anybody but her family and few friends of her when they came to visit.

He wondered what was the change about...

When Bella explained why they are not going to train Aquimenti in the classroom... Sirius could perfectly imagine his head of the house. Looking at them face stern and disappointed and asking "why have you eight flood the castle during an extracurricular?" he actually laugh at that.

At any rate, it was quite fun of a morning. He did not expect that, definitely not when Bellatrix started laying down the rules. But when she started talking about the stuff they would be learning in a while, he understood that the rules are necessary.

And while trying to hit a target over and over again might not have been the most fun he ever had... It was sorta satisfying to hear the bell over and over again with each hit. He suspected that that was the purpose of adding the bell to the target.

"Well done Sirius, Well done..." Said Bellatrix after she saw him hitting his target five times in a row. He grinned at his cousin. She grinned back and went over to Frank, to give him a few pointers.

It was not all that surprising that Bellatrix asked him to take a walk with her after the lesson was concluded. What surprised him was that no one had anything to say about it. Every one of his classmates either understood that Family is more important than house division, or Bella has won their begrudging respect, at least for the moment.

They exited castle mostly in silence except exchanging greetings with the

few people they met. When they got on the path leading to Black Lake the wind reminded them that the October was at its end. Bella conjured them grey woollen coats, nothing fancy but it kept them warm. "keep it please, I'm curious about how long it will last," said Bella when she handed over the coat.

The lake was deserted except for the gamekeeper, Rubeus Hagrid who was trying his luck with fishing. When he saw Sirius Hagrid waved but he sent a dark glare Bellatrix"s way. She was a bit puzzled until she remembered that it was Slytherin head boy who got him expelled.

For the moment she paid him no mind, they walked some more distance in silence before she remembered why did she want to take that walk in the first place. "Sirius, You haven't written to Reg in ages. I know that you write to Andy and Uncle Orion, but he is your younger brother, he should not have to ask Me about how You are doing in the Hogwarts". She did her best to sound concerned but not preaching.

To his credit, Sirius looked a bit embarrassed at the topic and took a moment before responding. "I wrote to him week after sorting, got an angry letter of reprimands from the Mother because I dared to write him that I am glad to be sorted in Gryffindor..." there was some more silence after that statement.

Eventually, Bellatrix sighted "Sirius. I am sure that it's hard but your brother looks up to you". She smiled approvingly "and I am sure that he would love to hear how you stood up to a gang of bullies, unarmed none the less"

"Even a gang of Slytherin bullies?" He answered "And if I let the mother know that I fought a gang of Slytherin bullies I am grounded for the entire summer" Sirius made a mother of all sour faces...

Bellatrix had to laugh "I got on good authority that cabbage you fought must have been miss-sorted to Slytherin. They are more like bad Gryffindors". See what, write to your brother, but put the letter in the same envelope with the next letter to Andi. And don"t send it by owl, I let you borrow Merlin, he is about as smart as Ravens come, he will make sure to give it to Andi and only to her. Sirius smiled at that. Bella got Merlin for her twelfth birthday and ever since was dotted on the bird. She would not have it for Merlin to stay in the owlery claiming that he needs an intelligent company. Bella had somehow flattered Professor Slughorn into signing special permission for her to keep the bird at her room... As long as it does not cause troubles to her roommates.

"that will do it and you are right, I write to Reg, thanks for helping Bella"

They grinned at each other. After a while, Sirius spoke "Glad you are training us. When you first spoke about me needing defence I was afraid you try to bully some other Slytherin you could squeeze as a Black to keep an eye on me... Well, I like this much better" He smiled and picked a stone threw it to the lake and watched it bounce from the water a few times before it finally sank...

"good throw Siri, good one" Bella clapped and draw her wand "now look, that's how it is done" she picked up a stone cast a lightweight and water repulsing spell on it and threw it, It bounced and bounced until neither of cousins could see it...

"Not fair, you are cheating!" Sirius said vividly, though not actually angry at her. His cousin grinned "Oh, there were any rules that ruled out magic?" Sirius thought about it for a moment before shaking his head "No, because nobody uses magic for that"

Bella nodded in agreement. "remember where there are no rules against something you can generally do it at least once. But you must count on people who dislike it to give you grief and try to make rules against what you have done"

Sirius was silent for a moment "you are right, no more magic when throwing flip-flops". His cousin grinned back. "Yes, that's exactly how it works, I know that you don't mind breaking rules, and that's good, but you need some refining about how" Bellatrix smirked.

"...wait you want to teach me how to break rules efficiently?" Sirius would be happy with that. If for no other reason then because his mother would absolutely disapprove of any such thing. She would insist on rules pedantically, true not on the Hogwarts rules, but rules anyway.

They walked some more in content silence and then returned to the castle for lunch. As they climbed the stairs to the entrance hall they met Alexandra Nott.

Sirius was not quite sure about the girl. True she was a Slytherin Prefect, but she was nice enough that he heard, true with the addendum "for a Slytherin at least". So when she greeted them with friendly enough "Hello" he answered in kind.

Bellatrix and Alexandra exchanged a few sentences and the older girl went on "to run a bit" as she said. As they entered the great hall Bellatrix noted: "If not for Alexandra and McGonagall we would not get that classroom to use. and she helped me to curb down these hooligans. We owe Her" Bellatrix looked directly at her cousin...

Sirius nodded seriously "All right, does that mean that we owe to McGonagall too?" Bella smirked, he learned fast... "Yes, Sirius, try to do your best at the Transfiguration"

They found all six of their classmates that took part in the club were sitting together and discussing the lesson. She asked if they had some questions after all, and answered the few that popped out... Then she trailed out to the Slytherin table and Sirus took his seat between James and Peter.

"What have you people talked about?" Asked James while he pushed a plate with steaks he saved for Sirius in front of his friend.

"Thanks, James" Sirius tore in the steaks and mashed potatoes when he realised that he was pretty hungry "Nothing much, my little Brother, apparently he misses me, my cousins, my old hag of a mother... Family stuff" he said dismissively. He was not sure what to say about his conversation with Bella.

And he definitely did not felt like speaking openly in the Great Hall, so he mouthed "Later" and went back to the lunch...

Two hours later he finished his letter to Regulus, only the second one in half a year. When he realised that, he felt a bit bad about it. He folded the letter and put it in the same envelope as the one for cousin Andi, the envelopes were a gift from his father. One that was actually useful, it protected the letters from elements and it would burn the letter if not opened by the addressee.

In his situation, it meant that his Mother would not dare open and read a letter addressed to Andi, as the letter would combust. Sirius smirked at the idea "would serve her right" he thought as he wrote about their study club...

"Hey Mate, what are you writing?" asked James, who was currently losing a game of chess to Peter. "Hope it ain't homework, its Saturday, mate". All four friends had a laugh at that.

"NO James, though I will take a look at that Transfiguration essay. After all, McGonagall signed that permit for us. I am going to put by best foot forward at the Transfiguration" he got back to his letter noting Remus nodding in approval.

"You have a point, mind if I join in?" Remus pitched in with his opinion as he set aside his DADA textbook. If Underwood did one thing right it was picking a textbook that actually had some practical hand on drills.

"Not at all, Remus, we just have to make sure McGonagall ain't going bust us for copying from each other." Sirius said before finishing his letter with "And send the reply to Bella, so you don't get in trouble with mum. Don't get in any trouble you can't handle, and enjoy the Quidditch if the father let you go, It"s Bats against the Prides, right? Sirius."

Sirius put the letter to the envelope sealing it and placing it in the breast pocket. "all right Remus, get the textbook I get Pergamon and ink. It's on the Gamps laws, right, we gotta to explain each one and try to circumnavigate around it using transfiguration" he got a nod in the answer and soon both boys were speculating on how to cheat old man Gamps and his rules...

They finished just in time to go for dinner a bit early. Both friends were confident in their respective work. Both managing to circumnavigate three of five laws with remaining two being love and a human soul.

At the great hall, Sirius strode to Slytherin table to hand over the letter but found that Bella was not yet there. He sighed and was about to turn back when someone called his name in pleasant contralto "waiting for Bellatrix, Sirius?" he turned on the heel and saw Alexandra Nott having just a cup of soup and toast for a dinner. "Yes, want to borrow her raven to send a letter. Merlin outflies most owls with one wing bound behind his back" Sirius smiled as he spoke, it was true.

Alexandra nodded "probably going to spend my first paycheck as an Auror for a raven from the same breeder. They are worth every sickle of their price. Common, sit with me, Saw Bellatrix in the library, she should come for dinner soon, and if not I give her your letter." He though for a moment about taking the latter part of the offer and bugger out to Gryffindor table, but that seemed a bit too rude. So he nodded and decided to eat the soup with Alexandra and get back to his friends for the main dish.

"sure, and thank you, Miss Nott" Sirius said as he sat down, he spared a look to the other Slytherin nearby. Nobody seemed angered at his presence. He thought for a moment whether Slytherins were less antagonistic towards Gryffindors then a vice versa. But that did not seem likely, more likely it was the combination of his surname and being invited to join by Prefect, that bought him admittance, then again he was too hungry to think about such things... and Hogwarts chicken soup was the best chicken soup in the world, of that he was sure.

Alexandra laughs at being addressed as "Miss Nott". she poured herself a cup of coffee and told him: "Please, I and your cousin are on first names. You can keep "Miss Nott" for when I am docking points from you for rule breaking. Other then that, its Alexandra, if you want of course." she finished with a slightly raised eyebrow extending a hand.

Without much thinking, he shook it "assumes you manage to catch me, Alexandra" they laughed a bit. For a Slytherin Prefect Alexandra was all right, Sirius thought.

a minute or two later Lucius Malfoy passed by, giving both of them polite if cold greeting, Sirius nodded and gave back the same, partly out of habit his father insisted on, partly to not embarrass his... Friend? No, Alexandra was his cousin's friend, but that meant some consideration for her as if she was his own friend.

Just before he finished his soup, Bellatrix made her way to the table. carrying a heavy load of books in her bag and looking a bit frustrated. That expression gave way to surprise when she spotted Sirius Sitting next to Alexandra. She swiftly made her way to them, almost running into one Ravenclaw along the way.

"Sirius, what a surprise, what got you in snake lair?" Bella smiled as she took a free seat across the table from her cousin and friend and got herself a cottage pie.

"wrote that letter we spoke about" Sirius handed her the envelope. He ate last of his soup while mentioning the Transfiguration homework, both girls smiled.

"McGonagall gives it to each first year, guess its half about transfiguration and half about gauging what you are made from". Bella explained, "Mind if I have a look at yours after you get it back?" Sirius shook his head and promised to show Bella the essay when he got it back. Then he excused himself and going back to his friends sharing the fact Bella told him.

Over the dinner boys talked about nothing but quidditch even Remus and Peter joined with few remarks as the Slytherin Vs. Gryffindor game was set in just two weeks.

Chewing a sausage Sirius noted "wish Slytherin did not suck as much as they do" one of their housemates fixed him a glare. To his surprise, one of the chasers of the Gryffindor team sat close enough, and the girl asked him "Why, Black? Don't want us to win?"

Sirius released his breath, the question at least wasn't outright malicious as was the glare he got from the other boy. "No, Cecily, but I want to see good Quidditch, not the one-sided slaughter you are going to serve them"

The chaser nodded "Got you. wish the game would be a bit more challenging myself" that statement was approved by all. the boy who stared at Sirius had enough grace to look a bit embarrassed.

The rest of the weekend went by all to fast for Sirius" liking, and he spent more of it by doing homework then he planned. At least he managed to read about the Agumenti charm and tried it a few times at the lake bank. He did not manage any impressive water streams, but it still was something he could use if needed.


	7. Weekend warrior part two

Bella did not like Quidditch, no that was not it... She was indifferent to the game itself but hated the fuss about it whenever Slytherin played a game. She wanted Slytherin to win though. Both as a matter of principle and because she would hate to deal with the entire Slytherin collectively sulking for a week or two.

She was also not so sure if holding another meeting of her defence club was a wise idea. It could get heated on this day, she was well aware of that. But on the other hand, it was only the third meeting. She wanted for the meeting to become a habit. Bella even sacrificed half of the Hogsmeade visit last week to teach them the basics of tickling hex and jelly leg hex. Bella did not though either to be real self-defence stuff, as she told them "if you can get away without hurting anybody, it looks much better to the teachers...".

For the day she chose to wear a simple dark green duelling robe. Planing onto wearing the grey coat she transfigured earlier with a serpent brooch she was given by her grandmother. She was going to make her house affiliation known, but not with a stupid Quidditch scarf, thank you very much...

She was currently trying and failing at enjoying a quiet breakfast at the Slytherin table which had already cover itself in various Quidditch accessories and it was buzzing with activity, unusual for Slytherin.

All six prefects, who were currently sitting around Lucius Malfoy. Were preparing their strategy for handling the match without any brawls. It helped that after last year the faculty finally decided to interspace Slytherin and Gryffindor sectors with the Ravenclaws. They did not have a fad for picking fights with either.

Finally too annoyed with the ruckus for her liking Bella get up, packed two toasts and a bottle of pumpkin juice and strolled off the great hall to her classroom, despite it being only a quarter past Eight.

Unknownst to her, though hardly unsuspected, her study group was having some second thoughts on today lesson as well. They sat together at the Hufflepuff table to discuss things in relative quiet. The few Puff sitting around them haven"t mind. It was not unusual for people and groups who got some heat in their house to take temporary refuge at the badger table.

"James, I really don't think we should have a meeting today," said Remus speaking for the voice of reason. while Peter, Frank and the girls were more or less the silent majority in the discussion so far.

"Remus," said Sirius "Bella puts a lot of her time into preparing lessons for us. Last week she gave up her Hogsmeade visit, think we should at least show up. She told me she will try to teach us some shield charm today. Could be useful if some of the snakes lose a bludger in the direction of our tribune" Sirius said with a grim expression. True that hasn't happened yet, but last year there were few close misses in Slytherin Vs. Hufflepuff, or so they were told. Sirius figured that might have something to do with the decision to put the shield spells on the menu.

Peter looked visibly nervous at that idea and murmured something about "better being ready". Remus agreed with the argument. Even if he doubted that whatever shield they could manage after three hours of practice would stop a bludger coming at them at hundred miles per hour.

"Better than nothing" shrugged James.

Eventually, the group made their way in the fourth-floor classroom, which they took to call "defence class" over the last two weeks.

Bellatrix was already waiting on them and she was currently busy making about a hundred paper planes. Sirius spared a thought to where did she pick the idea and what it was for, before sitting on the pillow.

She grinned at them. "Alright, Class, I see that you are all here, so thanks for the effort." She said giving them a respectful nod. "now depending on how closemouthed is my cousin some of you may already know what we are going to do today, its shield spells, anybody knows more than one?" she asked looking at nobody in particular.

Three hands rose. Lily, Remus, and Frank, she waited for a second if any of her less academically inclined pupils try to answer. Before trying to remember who of the three she hadn't asked an answer for in the last lesson. Being unable to she decide on the foot and said "Alright Frank, go on"

"There is the Protego spell, that's the most used one, but, my uncle Algernon prefers Aegis, the old Greek one, not the modern American one," he said. Bellatrix briefly struggled to remember who the hell might Algernon Longbottom be. Then she gave up and asked about why does Franks Uncle prefers Aegis.

"Well it gives you all-around cover while Protego will only cover you from the direction you cast it in..." he answered.

Bellatrix smiled a bit "yes, that is its main advantage, it is offset by Protego shields being somewhat stronger at directly repealing the incoming spell, but you should never truly count on shields, there is stuff that comes right through great most of shield spells..." There were some uneasy faces at that statement... "Not that its bloody likely someone will throw that kind of spell on you in the school corridor..." Bellatrix finished restoring a bit of the optimism she just crushed.

At that point, somebody knocked on the door, just three sharp, knocks. Bella had a good idea whom that maybe when she went to answer the door. And sure enough, it was McGonagall, through with Alexandra Nott in tow.

She never saw the two of them together. But she figured that since Alexandra signed her chart for the study group, McGonagall took her along for her inspection. She ushered them both in exchanging polite greetings. not being overly familiar with Alexandra to not push their newfound friendship into McGonagall's face. Risking undermining Alexandra"s objectivity when it comes to giving her assent to the group existence. She gave silent thanks to Her uncles" lessons at the etiquette.

Her students, of course, gave polite greetings too. Except they were a bit more formal with Alexandra, true they were still pretty formal with McGonagall. "She is running a tight ship," Bella thought as McGonagall took a short tour around her classroom noticing the furniture is both physically and magically fixed to one of the walls "Miss Black, while I am impressed by your efforts, even if some of it is house-elf work..." there was a bit of disapproval at the comment, but Bella bite down her anger, she was well aware that treatment some masters gave their house-elves was giving a bit of bad rap to anybody who had them... "I will still have to insist that you talk to Mister Filch and have it entirely removed from the classroom... Be that all as it may. Five points to Slytherin for security concern" she gave her one of her tight smiles. Then she conjured two armchairs in one corner of the room "don't mind our presence any longer I want to see your usual teaching methods." two women strong inspection took their seats and Bellatrix reassumed hers...

She was a bit nervous though. While she was still doing all this mainly as a way to bring Sirius up to speed at defending himself, and everything else was a window dressing to that... Bella found herself having more fun with window dressing then she thought she would have.

She turned her attention back to her class and asked them for more shield spells if they knew any. They had not, but Lilly knew that numerous shield spells can be embedded into clothing "Yes, that is correct, I have a coat and cloak with some sort of shield spells in it for the cases when I am with my uncle on any public business" Bellatrix smiled at her "even if that is often more of Charms territory than straight-up DADA" Bella then talked to them about nature of the drill of the day "sure you wonder what those are for," she pointed to the paper planes "I am going to charm them and try to attack you with them, you are to deflect them with Protego once you can cast it..." she gave them a somewhat evil grin and walked them through the wand movements and wording, reassuring them that there were no known cases of critical misfire with this spell, which led to necessity to explain what is critical misfire to some...

After making sure that all of them could cast Protego strong enough to keep the paper planes out, Bella instructed her students to form a circle facing outwards. When they did so she told them "This is called a defensive circle or roundel, whichever suits you better. Its main advantage is that you have all three-hundred-sixty degree around cover. Who can tell me about any of its disadvantages?" After a moment Frank raised a hand once more and so did Remus, so she asked Remus to answer.

"You can't move anywhere and you can't let the curses that would miss you pass. It could still hit your opposite number" he said. Bella nodded, impressed with that answer, the boy was sure putting his library time to good use.

She looked at McGonagall "Any chance we could make this in five points for Gryffindor?" McGonagall frowned for a moment. Eventually, she nodded. "Five points for Gryffindor well-argued Mister Longbottom, Mister Lupin." Remus was a bit uneasy at the praise but smiled politely and took a battle stance. Which Bellatrix started demanding during the last lesson.

Turning back to her class Bellatrix added "As Remus said, these are the disadvantages, there are more but we won't be getting into them. At least not for some time. The main point is that you sacrifice almost every other advantage on the altar of defence. It is a formation for when you are pinned down and utterly buggered" she finished with a grin. Then she conjured seven pairs of aviator goggles, handed them out and had her students put them on. Checking that Bellatrix charmed the paper planes to fly as directed by her wand.

"Alright, I'll go easy on you for now and only attack from level flight, but you can't keep your shield up all the time. If you did that in a real battle you would get picked out one by one by attrition. Got me?" The seven nodded, some more resolutely than others.

Bella aimed her first strike, a rather lazy one, at Sirius. She considered him the fastest spellcaster of the group so far. And sure enough, he did raise his shield in time and strong enough to keep out the paper planes. Bella doubted though, that it would keep out a serious curse.

"So far, so good... Just as expected" she thought. Five minutes later she was genuinely impressed with her students. She had to really try to land hits on them...

It took almost twenty minutes before she landed a solid hit on each of her students. When she saw that they looked a bit down she smiled at them and said "Good start folks, good start. Don"t think that you "lost" because I picked you off one by one, you held far longer then I thought you could" she added a respectful nod. She took to use that gesture a lot in her lessons.

After vanishing the beaten paper planes she told them about her plan to put at least one such drill in every lesson from now on.

"Also you can stack up several shields on. Then they can stop worse physical impacts and some curses that could get through one layer, but not through multiple ones. But. Again it"s not failproof. The best shield spell ever invented is called "getting out of the way, got me?" again all seven nodded in affirmation.

The rest of the lesson they have spent on doing a similar exercise with the Aegis shield. The results varied greatly with not everybody being able to cast one. Only Frank managed one that would stop an actual spell cast on it.

At Eleven thirty Bella dismissed the class, not taking any offence with the look of relief on nearly every face. Only Sirius and Remus managed to eager to run away.

With her students out of the classroom, she turned around and faced the inspection. McGonagall conjured another armchair, though less elaborate than the other two, for Bella to sit in.

She took the seat and put an expression of polite interest on her . The professor took a few moments before passing her verdict "well, for an absolute beginner, far as teaching is concerned. You, Miss Black, have certainly exceeded my expectations. Would I be correct that you have at least some independent duelling or defence education under your belt?" she asked.

Bellatrix took a short moment thinking about just how much should she reveal to the pair before answering... "My father is pretty good amateur duellist, he taught me the basics, and from there on I was adding the spells on my own. Plus I did a lot of reading on the tactics and general self-defence. Coming from my family, it could come handy one day..." she got two subtle nods at the last sentence.

McGonagall then asked to her notebook, and after looking it over, handed it back. "Miss Black, I assume I don't have to remind you that some of the data you collect about your students is pretty confidential" she raised an eyebrow.

Bellatrix responded in kind and smiled. "Professor McGonagall, I'm Bellatrix Black, secrets are our family trade"

Alexandra smirked at that and even Minerva"s mouth twitched in a small smile "Well, Miss Black let's see to that"

They talked some more. McGonagall shared some of her insights on teaching with Bellatrix while trying to get her to talk about her studies outside the Hogwarts DADA curriculum. Bellatrix found that a bit annoying. She did not want to lie, at least not in the way that would be trackable. On the other hand, she did not feel that she is getting anything in exchange for sharing her history.

But in the end, she thought "well, it can't hurt all that bad..." made herself more comfortable in her armchair and gave only a slightly edited version of her training both at her father"s hand and at the London duelling association...

"So you do train over each summer holidays? That's an impressive dedication for someone who doesn't plan to go straight to professional duelling, or to law enforcement after graduation," said McGonagall raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Especially for a person that speaks of looming civil war. Tell me Miss, Black, do you intend to fight in this war of yours?"

Bellatrix cursed inwardly. "Of course, McGonagall is suspicious of someone who put quite some effort to train themselves to fight with no apparent reason for it, you always need an apparent reason for anything suspicious you do, stupid" she rebuked herself before scrambling to answer...

"Yes, if it comes to my family, I will," she said firmly. Not trusting herself to come up with any ruse on so short notice.

McGonagall sat in silence for a moment before nodding. "I can live with that"

The Gryffindors arrived in the great hall noting it was even more packed then was usual for the lunch. All four house tables were extended. And the number of adults were present, some of them were families of the players some of the former players, and quidditch scouts and reporters...

Sirius could care less for any of that, at least until he had lunch. the seven quickly found empty seats and started filling their plates with food.

Halfway through a roasted chicken with rice, Sirius looked up and found himself staring in the face of his Father. Orion Black was flanked by Regulus and Andromeda. He was surprised, to say the least, true his father could come in on the quidditch days just like anyone, but Sirius has never known him to do so. Nor was it likely that he became a sports fanatic since Sirius left for Hogwarts, so the only reason why could he be there was to speak with Sirius. He braced himself and smiled while getting up "Hello father, how was the travel? Reg, come to enjoy the game? Andi, how are you doing?" he said his smile getting broader with each greeting.

He shook hands with his father and hugged his brother and cousin. He thought "Well, whatever am I getting chewed up for, seeing Andi and Reg is probably worth it".

TO no surprise of Sirius" his father did not mince words. "Good morning son, Id like to talk to you in private, actually to you and your friend mister Potter... James, is it?" he looked at James who nodded respectfully.

They agreed to talk while walking to the Gryffindor tower as Sirius had yet to get ready for the match and that they will let Reg and Andi in the company of Sirius"s friends as Bella was nowhere to be found.

As they walked through the hallways Orion smiled for a moment "Before you ask, you are not in trouble, not with me at least. You see a week ago I got a letter from Bella, see, I told her to look after you a bit, and she wrote that she did just that when you got attacked by some bullies..."

His smile got wider "and she also wrote that you two helped her to deal with the problem. That was brave of you, if a bit foolish, given the sorry excuse for Defense teacher, that you had to do with..." he fell silent for a moment.

Sirius nodded but remained silent, not knowing what Bella told his father, and what she omitted to tell he was not about to pull the rug under her by running his mouth.

"wondering why I wanted to speak with you in private, right?" Orion asked and waited for Sirius to answer

"Because you did not want to say something in front of Reg, that he would have to keep secret from Mother?" responded Sirius.

His father nodded "in a few years, Reg will learn how to manage to keep secrets, and what should be kept as such. For now, I want to let him enjoy simply being a child while he can. And I am sorry that you have to fight with your mother over your Choices, Sirius."

He went on "it may be still many years down the line, at least I hope so, but one day you will be making decisions not only for yourself but also as the head of the house. The reason why am I telling you that now is that I want you to learn a few things. Chief among them that in the end, you need to do what you believe is right. you will always get plenty of good advice, but in the end, it's your decision and your conscience... For example, I would not have advised you to get sorted in Griffindor had you ask me for advice" Orrion went silent for a few moments "But I am already starting to see that to do so was a good choice for you, and its definitely better for us, if you are a good Gryffindor, then were you to be a bad Slytherin, and seeing that you have already found a friend that stood by you in a fight" Orion smiled "What I want to say, is that sometimes, after you listened, and contemplated to all the good advice you can get, you still need to decide based on your conscience... And that I am glad you are learning how to do so, while you still can make some mistakes without getting badly hurt for that..."

They walked for a while in silence before Orion turned to James "and as for you, Mister Potter. If you remain so good friend to Sirius, you will always be welcome in my house, or should you need my help... And please do tell your father, that we are missing his wits in the chess club. It would seem that he is working on some new revolution in potion making, but that's no excuse to miss the Blitz turney twice in the row." Said Orion with a burst of laughter before wawing the boys goodbye and walking back to the Great-hall.

"So our fathers play chess together? Well, they say its a small world" commented James before they got in the common room...


	8. Match of the year

Some two hours later Bella arrived at the Slytherin part of the tribune, she wore a green riding hood and a serpent brooch, she caught a few disapproving looks from the quidditch fanatics who had all the quidditch gadgets and scarfs... Bella paid them no mind and prepared for the boredom "May this end quickly enough" she said to herself taking her seat and opening the pack of hot chestnuts...

Sirius was pretty close to having the time of his life, not only was he watching the game with his friends, weather was good, and he decided to make up to Reg by taking him to the game, Andi, of course, tagged along...

The game just started, Slytherin brought in new goalie, a transfer student from New Zeeland, in the last minute, so the game might turn interesting in the end...

And turn interesting it did...

Bella found herself intrigued, almost against her will, by the game. She was watching an entirely different team compared to the last season. That much was obvious even to total quidditch laic.

It seemed that the rumours about the team training hard over the summer break were well funded. And the game style was entirely different too. This new team clearly worked around the Keeper, Caitlyn Todd...

-"And another perfect catch by Todd! The girl can direct the defence as good, as only a few keepers I ever saw" called out the commentator...

Sirius could not agree more, as he watched another failed attempt by Gryffindor chasers to score. Above the ground, Slytherin beaters managed to nearly monopolise one of the bludgers...

Gryffindor beaters had to focus on counter-battering them with the other iron ball to get their chasers through, as they did just now!

"Crane goes in from the left-No he passes to Fitz-William-Fitz-William took a bludger from Slitherin beater-he loses the ball-Crane got the quaffle-Crane goes in low-Crane shoots...

Sirius watched the attempt fists clenched...

-Todd saves it again!-

Sirius and James both gave a wolf whistle as Slytherin keeper slid from her broom only holding on it by one hand, and kicked the quaffle over a good half of the field, in the hands of the waiting chaser in green, who then fired to the Gryffindor hooches and scored...

-Slytherin scores-Alex Rider scores his first shot this season-Ninety-ten to Fourty-Slytherin in the lead-

"Damn Black, what was that whistle for?" asked one of his classmates, ribbing Sirius in the process.

"When you manage to pull off this good catches regularly, Ill cheer for you, Adams..." he told the classmate who looked at him with a doubt before turning his attention back to the game.

Bella smiled looking at another near marvellous catch. Her worst fears seemed averted, even if Slytherin was to lose this match, it would lose with dignity untouched, and it won't lose five out of six games it was to play this year...

A few minutes later Slytherin managed to even out the score with a penalty shot, and the entire Slytherin Stand erupted with Joy... Literally in the case of several five-year students who got some rockets that exploded in the shower of Green and silver some three hundred feet above the stands, probably from Zonko"s...

She felt even better seeing that at least some of the fans all over the quidditch pitch seemed to cheer for Todd whenever she pulled off a particularly magnificent catch. "Good, a lot of people don't hate us yet," said Bellatrix to herself before reverting her attention back to the game...

Eventually, not even the magic worked by the Slytherin keeper was not enough to turn over the entire game. Slytherin lost by hundred and eighty points after Gryffindors caught the snitch.

their seeker got a standing ovation... As did Caitlyn Todd. It was doubtful who was cheered more, except by their respective houses...

Bella smiled... All and all, this went better than she expected in her wildest dreams.

Her classmates fired off every single piece of firework in the honour of their new favourite quidditch star.

Then everything went to the hell in the handbasket...

Sirius was just talking to Reg about his ambition to join the house team in two years when it happened.

Someone behind him, a Girl he thought, yelled: "Everybody, take cover!" He looked up and saw the latest batch of the rockets from Slytherin fireworks flying wildly of course in every direction...

At least five of them straight to the Gryffindor stands...

Sirius pushed his brother down to the ground and whipped out his wand and shout from the top of his lungs "Protego"

All of his friends tried to raise their shields too, Lily, Peter, Remus and Frank managed to raise them in time. And it was just as well that they did... as the rocked exploded against Sirius"s shield and stripped it bare, then Lily"s and Peters, stopping dead against Franks Aegis...

Three other rockets were disposed of effortlessly by the older students. The last one buried itself in the ground some ten feet in front of the stand.

Bella was livid, and that might have been an understatement. She immediately drew her wand and started looking around both for wounded, and for the Son of a Wand who did this. She found two second-year girls with small burns. They were crying as if the world was ending around them. Bella did not blame them for it, she cast a cooling spell on their burns and scrouged her pockets before giving them few chocolate pralines filled with firewhiskey...

She paid no mind to the fact that she just gave a bit of booze to pair of twelve years old, it was only chocolate she had on hand.

But she also had to smile proudly for a moment. Bella did not need binoculars to be able to tell who cast that shield wall that stopped the rocket aiming for the Griffindor sector. Honestly, she did not expect them to learn that fast, but her "student" did great for themselves... "Maybe there is hope for Gryffindor yet" she said for herself before looking around for any other wounded

James and Sirius looked at each other in awe "Mate, we owe your cousin" said Peter to Sirius. He noded "We damn sure do" he looked around "Everybody is fine?" he asked folks around.

The whole stand was humming with rumours, one fourth-year girl shrieked: "they did that on purpose, cause they lost the game!" She had almost a religious fervour in her voice

To Sirius"s surprise Frank Longbottom fixed her a stare. "If they did, they get O for effort, T for Execution, the only rockets that hit anything hit their stall. Looks to me like someone botched up big time... won't save them from expulsion though. Slughorn won't let this slide, his house reputation depends on it." he said talking with greater authority then one would expect from fresh twelve years old, but then again his family sat in Wizengammot for centuries...

A few students calmed a bit at that idea, just as Professor McGonagall started speaking to the student body and told them to orderly leave the pitch led by their prefects, Gryffindors going first, then Ravens and Puffs, and Slytherin as last...

Of course, there was nothing even remotely orderly about the way students left the pitch...

Once having dealt with the two girls Bella set about looking for any more wounded but found none on her section of the tribune. She heard McGonagall"s orders and snorted "of course we are going as last, least we drink someone"s blood or something..." she cursed under her breath. Yet, she understood the logic behind the decision, this way the panic was least likely.

She set about finding Alexandra, Bella found her running an impromptu aid station with help from a few older students. The other prefects were trying to maintain order.

Alexandra "apparently also ended with keeping watch over the Slytherin First-years. he looked at Bella "Not now, Bellatrix, got my hands full," she said curtly when seeing Bella.

Bellatrix smiled at her and pointed to the first-years. "Think I can help you" she said. Alexandra beamed her a grateful smile and went about tending to wounded.

The first-years looked at Bella and she smiled reassuringly at them. She felt surprisingly similar to how she felt when she ran her defence club. Sort of "I'm in charge now" combined with "I can't lose it now" Bella come to like that.

"Hello, for the few who don't know me yet, I am Bella Black. You guys have no reason to be scared the prefects got the situation well in hand" she smiled again and conjured a big kettle of tea and cups.

The tea helped to calm the firsties more so than Bella's words. most of them sat on their seats and started sipping the scalding hot brew.

The calm did not last long as one of the girls asked Bella a question she was asking herself: "Who did this?"

Bella, of course, had her set of suspects in the Flint"s gang, but it could also be an accident and she dearly hoped it was an accident.

She turned to the girl and spoke "either this was an accident, or somebody threw a tantrum because we lost a match. If you ask me who could think about throwing such tantrum, I think the quidditch hooligans might get such an idea."

"That was pretty dumb" reasoned the girl who asked the question in the first place. Bella beamed at that "You are right. First, unless they wanted to hit us, they missed their mark. Slytherin plans and doesn't bugger up. Second..." Bella went on about how big a clusterfuck they just saw and how they should always strive to do the wrong right...

As the Gryffindors were making their way to the castle Sirius spent a moment thinking about the reason why they were sent of the pitch as first. "probably cause they think we are shocked" he though. oddly enough, given the situation, he did not felt much shaken. Yes, he was angry but he also felt powerful at the moment...

And sure enough, pulling that kind of stuff in front of his favourite cousin and his baby brother was something too.

He smirked when he heard a few people swearing fiery vengeance thinking to himself "If Bella finds about who did this, there won't be enough evidence left, much less somebody to take vengeance on".

And he had no problem with that.

A few people started asking about their shields and where they learned how to cast them. He and Remus explained about their study group omitting that they were taught by a Slytherin. Soon they had nine more "recruits". James smirked "by the Christmass your cousin will be teaching entire First and second-year," he said to Sirius.

Remus nodded "not a bad idea, I'll go barking at the moon if Ill have to analyse one more Duel of Century for Underwood," he said with a grimace.

A few minutes after that they arrived at the Entrance hall and various family members and other guests had to leave.

Sirius hugged Andy and Regulus and promised to write home more often.

when he left for Gryffindor Tower with his friends, he smiled. Without his mother, the rest of his family was not half bad, he thought.

He also wondered what was going on within Slytherin. Sirius looked around for any unwanted ears once they climbed through the portrait and told his friends "Guys, I'll try to catch Bellatrix tomorrow at breakfast, gonna ask her about the investigation, if there is any..."

"There will be one hell of an investigation, Old McGonagall won't have it any other way," said Frank with a grin...

"Why, Mister Longbottom, you are correct. And am I correct if I presume you meant that as a term of endearment, and not as a hint at someone"s age?" said the aforenamed Professor who somehow materialised behind them...

Frank Went through several shades of red before mumbling out some form of agreement as Minerva went to address the Gryffindors.

Lily laughed "You've been had Longbottom, utterly and without a question"

Frank muttered "Very funny" before all seven students laughed even with Frank joining eventually.

Bella was sitting at her favourite armchair in the Slytherin Common room when Professor Slughorn arrived to talk to his House. The other Armchair at the small coffee table was empty despite the common room being packed to the brim. Bella felt a bit of amusement at that, it turned out that she was pretty good at sending death glares...

She looked at Slughorn. His usual friendly academic persona was gone. He ordered a few students to get everybody in the common room without a hint of question or suggestion in his voice.

When they arrived he gave them all one disappointed look before he even began talking... "Somebody, who is probably sitting in this room has disappointed me so hard, that I could not imagine such shame before today... That such a thing could happen within Slytherin."

"above all, that person or persons hurt their housemates and disgraced our house. We will now have to strive hard to earn back the respect and trust we had, until today, enjoyed."

He made a short break to let that sink in before continuing: "I will not enact any collective punishment, nor will I take house points away. That would be both deeply unjust to the rest of you, and wholly inadequate for the criminal act we saw today."

"But I will find out, and unless this was all an accident, and the perpetrator will step forward on their own accord, they will get expelled..."

"should nobody step up, I will be forced to question you all under Veritaserum to find out who did this. But I will find out... And one last warning, if the person responsible is thinking about making another student take the blame for them, the expulsion will be the least of their problems..."

Bella was astonished, she did not see Slughorn as a figure of authority, not until now at least... She entirely missed that he wished the innocent Slytherin goodnight and left...

But after a moment of silence, the Quidditch hooligans started protesting loudly as if bullying Gryffindors was their God-given right. Bella's wand hand was itching...

But it seemed that everybody else has had enough of Flint and his ilk for one reason or another. The entire house gave them earful crowned with the newly minted Quidditch star Todd. She looked at them and said: "The lot of you, either set yourself straight, and start acting like people, or don't show for the next game!" she then stormed off the common room.

After that Lucius Malfoy ordered them to either shut up or get lost. To the last man, they chose the latter option and sulked off to their bedrooms. Bella shook her head in astonishment how did these cabbages land in Slytherin...

A moment later Alexandra stopped by and pointed at the other armchair "May I?" she asked with a weary smile.

Bella nodded enthusiastically and waited for what the older girl had to say.

Alexandra sent a look towards the entrance "Old man did not mince words today. I'm starting to understand why my mum told me to not mess with Slughorn under any circumstances." Said the prefect with a smile.

Bellatrix matched her smile "and for once I like that, a lot. Have any suspects for this 'Accident'?" Bella's tone was filled with curiosity, but she also made it clear that she did not trust that accident theory very much.

Alexandra shook her head in exasperation before talking "No, normally id suspect Flint or some of his goons. But Lucius rounded them up for the match and swears he did not lost sight of them for a moment, let alone long enough for this to happen." She sat silent for a moment before adding: "in a way I'd be happy if it was them" she said sending a murderous look in the direction of Slytherin boys' dormitories.

"Can I try to guess why?" asked Bella and decided that she won't be going to the bed early today. Alexandra nodded: "Of course. I bet you can guess at least some of my reasons…" She said getting more comfortable and looking at Bellatrix while she thought about the issue.

"He would be out of our hair for good, we would get to clean the house reputation if he is expelled, that alone must be worth something." Said Bella allowing herself a bit of dreamy tone.

Alexandra nodded: "out of everybody's hair to be more precise. With that kind of Expulsion, not even Kruval would touch him, and Flints don't have enough money to get him any decent education privately. Mean he won't get into any position of power to abuse more people…"

"Well then its shame we can't blame him without actual culprit getting away scot-free..." said Bella wistfully and sent a resentful glare in the direction of Boy's dormitories. Alexandra sighted: "In this case, if you would find a way how to make it happen I might just let you get away with it. No matter what we prefect or whoever Else have tried on them, Flint and his party seems hell-bent on going down the worst path possible. Think that without him some of them might be salvageable through" she added with a sight… Bellatrix raised an imaginary glass of wine in a toast. "Here is to Flint getting expelled for something and soon…" Alexandra mirrored her gesture and both girls smiled.

Bella was pleased that most Slytherin saw at least some problem With Flint when he earlier almost declared that all the Gryffindors are his quarry to do as he pleases with. She did not care if her other housemates did that out of humanism or to keep Slytherin reputable. 'Acta non Verba' though Bella before looking back to her companion.

"All and all, today ended up well enough," she said with a small smile.

Alexandra shook her head: "When we don't see any reprisals fights for a week or two, then I'll celebrate, not sooner" she said getting more serious again. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Alex spoke again. She smiled and said: "but that's not what I wanted to talk about. I wanted to thank you for taking care for the first years, and for giving the first aid to those two girls. I bite a bit more than I could chew. It helped a lot. I'll be sure to remember it." Bella was touched. She was just about to say that she did not do anything that extraordinary and that anyone would do as she did, were they in her place. But she dismissed that idea, it was extraordinary for Alexandra otherwise she would not put such import on it.

Instead, she smiled and said: "It was a pleasure. Anytime you need help, just ask, and I'll do my best." She was surprised how easy these words come to her. Yes. Just like that, she had made a far-reaching promise. Without getting any direct gain in return. With every intention to keep it… It went directly against what she was taught at home… And it felt good…


End file.
